As is almost always the case now with auctions of major single-owner collections, Sotheby’s secured the Fisher Landau consignment by guaranteeing the sellers an overall minimum price.
Picasso’s 1932 painting “Femme à la montre,” the star lot of the Fisher Landau collection, was one of 24 lots in the Nov. 9 evening sale backed by irrevocable bids.
This was knocked down to one bid of $22.2 million, incurring Sotheby’s a substantial loss, but preserving the prestige of a 100 percent selling rate.
(His Fine Art Group spent $4.8 million for a 1995 Agnes Martin painting at the Fisher Landau evening session.)
The art adviser Josh Baer, reporting on the Fisher Landau auction in his Baer Faxt newsletter, said, “profitability for auction houses is not always going to happen.
Persons:
Sotheby’s, Fisher, ”, Fisher Landau, Rothko, ” Hoffman, Agnes Martin, Josh Baer, Baer
Organizations:
Sotheby’s, Art